TiVo box stuck on software update page

Hi all, new poster here.

My mum is elderly and struggling with her Virgin TV box. I went through the system info and it appears to be a TiVo one.

Yesterday when I visited, a standard Software Update overlay came up on screen with the usual “accept” or “later” options. When she clicked accept the whole system froze. The sound continued from the TV show that was on but the remote buttons all stopped working and nothing happened. Pushing back, exit, TV or Home all did nothing.

I switched off and on but it happened again within a few minutes, same issue of it freezing when the “accept” button was pushed. I did a harder switch off, turning off the machine and at the plug and leaving for a few seconds and it appeared to fix it.

Concerned it would happen again after I left I tried contacting Virgin anyway. It took me about an hour to find a way through the automated service to speak to a person but they didn’t offer any ideas except switching the machine off and on and said that after checks there were no issues with my mum’s system.

This morning it did the same thing again. She switched off and on at the wall and it’s not happened again yet today.

Any ideas what’s going on or how to fix? The box is old so I’m wondering how she gets a new one but it’s very difficult to get through to an actual person and even then it’s not the easiest issue to explain.